This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Twice earlier in the game, with much less drama and at much less important moments, Wiggins had won man-to-man battles, once forcing a bad shot, once reaching high to disrupt a lob pass, showing the 36-year-old his myriad defensive skills.

But now the game is seemingly on the line, Bryant is sure to take the shot and everyone knows it. Wiggins has to remember a similar situation in another game this season, when he bit on a Jimmy Butler pump fake with seconds left in a game, committed a foul and the Timberwolves lost to Chicago.

“I’m sure Kobe saw our Chicago game where he went for a pump-fake and Kobe loves pump fakes,” Minnesota coach Flip Saunders was saying before the game. “We warned him a little to watch out; it’ll be a good matchup for him to kind of gauge where he’s at.”

Article Continued Below

Where he’s at?

Bryant pump fakes, Wiggins bites, Bryant is fouled and the Timberwolves are saved only when Bryant misses both free throws and Minnesota goes on to win.

And so goes another day in The NBA Education of Andrew Wiggins, a fearless defender with jaw-dropping skills and much to learn.

“The thing that I’m impressed with,” says Minnesota assistant coach and ex-Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell, “is, at 19, he guards the best player on the other team, he never backs down, never asks for help.

“We played Houston in Mexico City, he did as good a job on James Harden that I’ve ever seen done. We played Miami, he guarded Dwyane Wade, then we had the Knicks with Melo and then we had someone else who was pretty good . . . he never shies away.”

Minnesota Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins, left, makes his way around San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. (Jim Mone / The Associated Press)

That is the most impressive part of Wiggins’s rookie year, by far. He is as advertised on offence and athletically, he averages about 12 points a game and shoots 40 per cent from the field while being forcefed minutes on a not-very-good Minnesota team ravaged by injuries. But all young phenoms seem to have those spurts of astonishing offence, that Wiggins is becoming known for his defensive prowess is what’s setting the Thornhill native apart in the early stages of his rookie season.

“Just playing and learning,” Wiggins said.

That’s about all you get out of Wiggins in the interaction with the media department. He seems loathe to open up, he retreats to one-word answers, quiet voice, head down. You get the sense he’d rather be facing Bryant with the game on the line than become engaged in banter with the media.

Shy is the most apt descriptor. Uncomfortable would be another.

“All 19 year olds are,” says Mitchell, the antithesis of a man of silence. “They’re 19. Their comfort zone is playing, not dealing with the media. You give him a year, he’ll get better, once he understands that his personality is okay.”

But Wiggins is not being touted as the next great quote, he’s being touted as one of the next generation of great young players and that’s where he will be measured. It’s helping that he’s on a team with few expectations on it. He’ll go through inevitable growing pains and learn from them.

“He’s a two-way player, plays both ends, his offence is getting better,” said Saunders. “He’s struggled a little bit here lately, he’s trying to almost do too much because we have so many guys out but … he’s finding ways to be able to get his shots up. Now we have to find a way to get better shots and knock down more of those shots.”

A summer trade from Cleveland to Minnesota was a bit of a blessing because Wiggins is able to play through rookie mistakes without costing a team that harbours legitimate championship hopes.

It’d be one thing to have to answer to the likes of LeBron James in Cleveland; in Minnesota he’s able to grow along with other youngsters like Zach LaVine and Ricky Rubio.

“Like everybody, we want to win but the thing about Andrew is he goes out and he plays and he plays with a purpose,” said Mitchell. “Some young guys, they just run up and down and they don’t have a clue. He does have a game plan, he understands things.

“When we go through the scouting report and what we want to do, he takes that information, he applies it.”

He may not apply it evenly all the time but less than a quarter of the way through his first season, Wiggins has shown a willingness to meet challenges head on; he may not win them all but he’ll learn from each one.

“He’s not a good kid, he’s a great kid,” says Mitchell. “He’s going to be a good one. Trust me.”

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com